Hard drive problem / bug?

[Atomika]

Right, Well this might seem weird and it's puzzled me for hours, actually days.

 

When I've been doing something such as playing Advanced Warfare, my Disk Usage goes right to 100% instantly and stays there the whole time I'm playing the game. For like 10-20 minutes after the game has completely closed down and exited it's still doing the same.

 

My hard drive read arm has been making some weird noises as of late, like reading - I've never knocked, dropped or bashed my PC so I'm not really sure why it's happening?

My PC seems to be running as fast as it always has been on a standard hard drive so I'm really unsure of why this is happening?

 

I'm running Windows 8.1 - Don't hate.

2TB Western Digital Caviar Green (Only drive I've got in the PC ATM - Going to be upgrading to an SSD soon...)

 

I'm wondering if the HDD is on it's last legs as I've had it for like 1-2 years nearly.

 

I know hard-drives can die, as I've had them die on me in the past, I've experienced them slowing down but never had any of the read / write arm or 100% disk usage problems before.

 

Any idea if it's a software caused problem or if it's an actual problem caused by my HDD? 

 

Thank you in advance.

 

EDIT: For example, right clicking and pressing properties on a large folder such as my steam install folder is fast for a hard drive but it shoots my windows explorer right to 3.9MBP/s and the disk usage rockets right to 100% Surely this isn't right?

[TheGeekster]

If you download crystal disk info, it'll give you a rough indication of the hard drive's health. (Typed that so many times today)

 

If you open up resource manager, it will tell you what files are being read/written to most, so you could work it out from there, not sure about the way COD works in terms of level loading while in a game or something.

[Atomika]

If you download crystal disk info, it'll give you a rough indication of the hard drive's health. (Typed that so many times today)

 

If you open up resource manager, it will tell you what files are being read/written to most, so you could work it out from there, not sure about the way COD works in terms of level loading while in a game or something.

 

I've spoken to a few friends, Some owning SSD's and some owning HDD's and they're all coming back negative on the same problem when loading games etc.

(Bearing in mind, it's not just AW that causes this issue, counterstrike, BO2, Crysis etc.)

 

Thanks for the fast reply, I'll download crystal disk info and check it out. I'll get back to you on my findings.

[Atomika]

Some screenshots:

Performance Monitor - Click the text - You can see the counters I added and the data that the graph was drawing out.

Crystal Disk Info - Click the text - Looks perfectly normal to me, Not really an expert on hard drive problems though - temperature is at 37 celcius so that's normal right?

 

Sorry for double posting btw before anyone complains.

[TheGeekster]

It's fine double post to reply should be fine.

 

If you open up task manager, go to performance, then click "Open Resource Monitor" (I got the name wrong first time)  then click on the Disk tab, it'll show you what files are being read and written to, so if you open up a game, get it to the stage that it's chugging, then tab out and have a look at what file is being written/read, it should give you an idea.

 

What antivirus do you have? Some are known to try to read and scan every single file the game is trying to load.

[Atomika]

It's fine double post to reply should be fine.

 

If you open up task manager, go to performance, then click "Open Resource Monitor" (I got the name wrong first time)  then click on the Disk tab, it'll show you what files are being read and written to, so if you open up a game, get it to the stage that it's chugging, then tab out and have a look at what file is being written/read, it should give you an idea.

 

What antivirus do you have? Some are known to try to read and scan every single file the game is trying to load.

 

Using Avast, Not really sure why, I liked the gaming mode on it so I installed it for that hahaha, Not sure if I should use it or I should use another one.

 

Screenshot of my resource monitor here

[TheGeekster]

Try disabling avast, running a game, then if it chugs, tab back and take a screenshot quickly, should hopefully give an idea of what's causing the usage.

[ictdude1]

well its not the hard drive if crystal disk info sees it as fine so it must be down to something else

[Atomika]

The game runs fine, It's just making sounds etc.

 

It's not chugging. 

[Godlygamer23]

Any other situations that it occurs in? Perhaps another title?

[Mighty_Miro_WD]

Hi there @Atomika!

 

I personally don't think that the hard drive is the reason for the stuttering here. If there's a noise coming from it, you can run a test with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and see if the results are (I see that Crystal Disk didn't detect anything wrong with it, but nonetheless you can try manufacturer's tool). You can download it from here:

 

http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=SpxvYi

 

I also agree with @Godlygamer23, is the problem only with AW or it is happening with other games as well?

 

Cheers!

[Atomika]

Any other situations that it occurs in? Perhaps another title?

 

Not really, Launching applications, games, opening files etc.

 

It's just opening stuff to be fair, not really anything else I can say other than that. Once it's at 100% nothing else opens, like you can only launch one thing at once

 

 

Hi there @Atomika!

 

I personally don't think that the hard drive is the reason for the stuttering here. If there's a noise coming from it, you can run a test with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and see if the results are (I see that Crystal Disk didn't detect anything wrong with it, but nonetheless you can try manufacturer's tool). You can download it from here:

 

http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=SpxvYi

 

I also agree with @Godlygamer23, is the problem only with AW or it is happening with other games as well?

 

Cheers!

 

It happens with all games, not just AW. I've tested it on nearly all of my installed games. Minecraft makes my disk usage go to 100% as well but I don't experience the slowness, I can still open applications / programs etc. fine?

Oh and, I'll download the tool now to see if it's the problem, I'll come back with a reply of my findings.

 

Thanks everyone for the help

[Atomika]

 

Hi there @Atomika!

 

I personally don't think that the hard drive is the reason for the stuttering here. If there's a noise coming from it, you can run a test with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and see if the results are (I see that Crystal Disk didn't detect anything wrong with it, but nonetheless you can try manufacturer's tool). You can download it from here:

 

http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=SpxvYi

 

I also agree with @Godlygamer23, is the problem only with AW or it is happening with other games as well?

 

Cheers!

 

 

Test results are as follows:

Test Option: QUICK TEST Model Number: WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 Unit Serial Number: WD-WCAZAL362480 Firmware Number: 51.0AB51 Capacity: 2000.40 GB SMART Status: PASS Test Result: PASS Test Time:

17:02:01, January 12, 2015

 

Looks normal to the application?

 

Screenshot of application here.

[Mighty_Miro_WD]

I don't think that your HDD is causing the problems here since this is a second test that doesn't detect any problems with the hard drive, but more likely a memory leak. Here's an article from Microsoft's KB that can help you out find if this is the case:

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms859400.aspx

[Atomika]

I don't think that your HDD is causing the problems here since this is a second test that doesn't detect any problems with the hard drive, but more likely a memory leak. Here's an article from Microsoft's KB that can help you out find if this is the case:

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms859400.aspx

 

Checking this out now, Thanks yet again